Di Marino Laury

디마리노 로리
Name in Latin Alphabet:	Di Marino Laury
Nationality:	French
Affiliation:	Université d'Aix Marseille

About me

My name is Laury and I'm french, but you can call me Lili, some of the other students say it's cuter ! I just turned 20 and I live in Marseille, near the sea~ I will soon begin my third year of studying litterature, culture and civilization in three languages : English, Korean and Spanish in Aix Marseille University. Learning three languages and their cultures is indeed a lot of work but also very intersting !

You may wonder why I chose to study Korean, don't you? Well it's simple, I like learning languages and I was interested in Korean culture, so the choice of my studies was quickly made.

I used to listen to some kpop songs before but I wasn't very interested in Korea. The moment I trully began to grow interest in Korea was when I started watching Korean movies, and TV documentaries. (Or was it when I first tried Bimbimbap? Hmm...I'm not really sure...) I had already seen many movies from Japan, China and other asian countries, but Korean culture caught my attention a bit more and that's how I ended up here, in Korea for one month I guess? ^^

In my university, we have many classes of culture and we analyze a lot of movies. My language professors are very efficient and kind-hearted so I'm pretty satisfied with my studies.

AKS summer program

When my (awesome, she is just awesome !) korean teacher told me about the existence of this program I was very excited, because I thought it could be a good opportunity to improve my korean and to experience, by living in the country, all the interesting things I had learned about the korean culture.

And now, being part of the program is an honour, and a big chance.

Life in AKS

When I first arrived in the campus, I was affraid and anxious, but then, I was warmly welcomed and felt more at ease. Also, when I saw the landscapes and the forest-like atmosphere, I felt peaceful. Then, when I discovered my room, I was amazed by this traditional-like windows, and all the technology.

I was happy to discover my roommate was Bukta Nikolett because we get along well with each other and we laugh a lot.

The campus is beautiful, it has a lake, a bridge, fountains, round-shaped trees (those trees have already many fans) and so on...you can even see some animals passing by !

The classes

I'm in the elementary class, and our teacher is very nice, and the classes are interactive, we practice talking a lot, and share ideas with one another. The three hours of classes fly by very quickly for me.

• History Class

We had History and Culture of Korea class on July 21th in the AKS campus. For this first class, the teacher dealed with the 9th century, about the beginning of the trades between Shillah, one of the three kingdom of Korea at that time, and Dang in China. Then we learned the story of Jang Bo Go who established a trade base with China. Then we began to consider Buddhism and Confucianism during Goryeo dynasty which were brought by foreigners during this period too. It was interesting to bring up this subject as I had never studied in deep the period of trades of Korea during the 9th century. I'm not really fond of history (We can even say I used to hate history class, but my highschool teacher will probably scold me if he saw that...) and I was afraid of having a class I already had in France but I was pleasantly surprised. I had already learned about Buddhism and Confucianism but in a philosophical way so it remained interesting.

The field trips

On the first week, we did many awesome trips and activities:

• Pottery in Icheon

Where we learned about the history of pottery and how to make some. (I created some sort of candle holder)

• Trip in Suwon

We did so many things during this trip, it was my favourite one (For the moment). We visited the Hwaseong fortress, ate italian pasta, put hanbok on and did the tea ceremony.

• Talchum

On Wednesday 20th, we went to the Korean Culture house in Seoul, in the district of Gangnam to learn Talchum. First, we settled in a little theater and then an absolutely lovely and funny woman came and explained to us, after a short video, what Talchum is: A dance performance with mask that emerged during the Joseon era. After an introduction to this art, we learned some “encouraging words” to scream during the performance such as “잘한다!’’ or “올수!” that I was never able to say the right word at the right time but let’s not talk about that !. Then, it was our turn to go up on stage and dance and I have to say I was pretty excited to learn this and wasn't disappointed at all when we started: we all put long sleeves on and began to do some kind of « S » movements with our hands that I like to call octopus movements and some of the students even invented movements never seen before, making our teacher laugh. First, I was doing the movements smoothly but seeing our teacher dancing, I quickly changed the way I did it, because actually you have to be rough for this dance. The mood was pleasant and delighted, we could feel everyone was enjoying the moment, with big smiles on their faces. That's why, I won't forget about Talchum ! I can even show off in front of my friend now~

Local Tour

During our 3rd week, we did a local tour to Gyeongju ! How was Gyeongju ? In short, it was peaceful, beautiful and full of charm ! But we did so many things that cutting to the chase would be a blasphemy.

It was on Thursday, 28th when we took the bus at nine to begin the adventure. The first part of the trip was very quick because we were heading to the 한국민속촌 용인한옥스테이 효총당, the Korean Folklore Village park. I loved the fact that as soon as we entered the park, and more specially when we went further in the “Ancient-like Village”, we were immersed in the old times with all those little houses, gardens full of flowers and animals like cows and hens placed and looking exactly as we can see them in the history dramas. I was tempted to act as a Joseon era person but, as there was other people, I held back of course. In this same village, there was a sort of place for the shows; so I just seated and waited until a samulnori orquestra came until us while playing music and dancing. I enjoyed this show a lot, it was well rhythmed and different from what I'm used to see. Some of the dancers had a ribbon scratched to their heads and when they moved their heads it moved harmoniously and the best part was when they jumped and did a sort of horizontal flip. When the show ended we were able to take photos with the dancers, so of course we did. Few minutes later, an other show started: horse trainers jumping, doing figures and standing on their horses. It was impressive but then in the middle of the show one of the horses did his business and the atmosphere became very funny ! After this, we walked along the river with Nikki, Nogin, Mai Anh, Kristina, Dobrin and Lorenzo up until the amusement park and there we did some attractions such as the Viking and the haunted house, it was amusing to see that the guys were more afraid than us girls… Then, we ate some pasta and rested before continuing our journey. During the trip, we did a karaoke in the bus...I was surprised and amazed to see that we could transform the bus in a noraebang…but this is Korea ! Also when Park Minsoo Seonsaengnim started singing we all stayed speechless, as we didn’t know he could sing this well…almost as well as the singer in Queen ! While we were on the bus, the teachers gave us a lot of sweets so that we couldn’t starve, it was very nice of them. We finally reached Gyeongju, ate dinner and then went to the Anapji area, a park were some ruins from ancient buildings remain. It was very pleasant to seat by the lake to admire the ruins lightened by multicolored lights when the night came. After this, we went to the hotel, shared room with new roommates (mine were Ruby and Chandima, very nice and sweet girls) and finally slept after a tiring but amazing day. The second day, we all went to eat the buffet in the hotel with big smiles on our faces and with full plates. This day, we went to see the oldest star observatory in the country…oh and we also melted because of the sauna-like weather, but that’s just a detail…We visited a park littered with hill-shaped tombs, a lake and beautiful gardens. We entered the only tomb opened for the public. I really liked the shape of the tombs, and the park itself with its pink flowers trees. After this, we went to the Gyoeongju national museum. A welcoming place, calm, with beautiful collections of Buddhist art that run throughout the country's history. Essential for those who want to acquire a basic understanding of the cultural influences that have made Korea. By the time the noon-hour came around, we went to eat some delicious pizza, and I probably ate more than I should as usual…There, we met Nadia’s Korean parents and they bought us teokbeokki…I was very touched by this. After some short travelling, we arrived at the Underwater Tomb of King Munmu in one of the famous beach of Gyeongju. The sight was wonderful : many rocks littered the beach and we could even see some of them in the sea. Then we settled in by the sea and we had a lot of fun : At first, we were just touching the water with our feet but suddenly everyone began to jump in it…I hadn’t plan to bath but then Park SangBeom Sonsaengnim and Mai anh threw me in the water…And they did well, because it was more amusing this way ! After our little adventures at the beach we went to eat…A Korean buffet !! It seems like we’re in a feeding program ! During the last day, we went to visit the most known temples of the cities, it was near …oh ! I almost forgot to say that once again, everyone ate a lot during the breakfast buffet ! So, the first temple, Seokguram was located in the mountains, in the middle of the forest. The place was very peaceful, intimate and had a calming effect. There was lotus-shaped lanterns (Buddhist symbol) attached to the high meadows, outside the temples. The lanterns are supposed to bring light into the darkness of the world. These lanterns are usually made before the day of Buddha's birth, that is to say before April, 8th. Then we went to the most famous temple in Gwangju : Bulguksa..It was wonderful, the park and the temples, the buildings, even if it was very hot, it was worth it ! After this, we went to eat and headed to AKS…it was an amazing trip and I really loved the city, also it allowed me to learn more about my classmates and get closer with them.